In a message transmission and reception between terminals, a notification signal for notifying an arrival of a message has been generally configured as one type of common notification signal according to a state configuration of a terminal. That is, a notification method reflecting properties of messages, such as information on whether a received message is a response message to a previous message transmitted from a terminal or information on whether the content of a received message requires an urgent processing, has not been used.
In some cases, it can be possible to configure different notification methods according to the types of messages, such as a voice message, an E-mail, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, or a MultiMedia Service (MMS) message, or the types of applications related to the received messages. Further, in the case of normal phone call reception, it can be possible to configure different ringtones according to callers.
However, even in this case, since the notification method may not be configured according to the property of each message, only a rough type of a message or an application can be distinguished. Further, if the state of a terminal has been configured as a silent mode or a vibration mode, a notification method configured by the terminal itself can be employed regardless of a notification configuration corresponding to reception of a message. Therefore, distinguishing between notification methods can be meaningless.